History Film / TheBeekeeper

** on the surface, Derek seems like an HonestCorporateExecutive whose decent to his employees, on good terms with his mother and seems like a laid back business man. When in truth he's a selfish, cowardly, scum suck of a momma's boy who isn't above online scamming and matricide.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Adam certainly thought so of Eloise, the acts of vengeance he'd committed were more than just because of the [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe genuine kindness she showed him]]. Brief soliloquy's made in her name every now and then, during his running and gunning down her indirect killers, subsequently putting their phone line scamming out of business, really goes to show how much Adam loved her as a person.
* TortureAlwaysWorks: Clay tortures the middle manager by using a stapler on his hands and forehead repeatedly until the man breaks and gives up his boss. To his credit, the man provides photographic evidence just to make sure Clay knows he's telling the truth.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Garnett acts friendly and helpful during his phone conversation with Eloise. Of course, the key word is "acts"; Garnett is actually a callous, self-serving scumbag who has zero qualms about taking advantage of her trust to rob her blind.

* GoodIsNotSoft: Clay may be firmly on the side of justice, sparing innocent lives and allowing the smaller criminals a chance to walk away, but that doesn’t mean he won’t break a few heads if people get in his way, and has no problem beating the crap out of law enforcement and even giving them survivable wounds if it comes to it.

* HateSink: The people managing the entire conspiracy are not remotely likable, being nothing more than a bunch of sleazy, overconfident shysters who seem to actively delight in draining innocent people dry of their money and are nothing more than {{Dirty Coward}}s when finally faced with someone their security can't handle. It makes Clay utterly destroying them all the more cathartic.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:After learning she was elected via all the money Derek stole through his phishing scam, President Danforth decides to expose it to get justice for his victims, even though it will ruin her career.]]
* IgnoredExpert: The special forces team that Westwyld assembles to try to deal with Clay when he comes for the headquarters of Derek's phishing operation in Boston attempts to shut the place down and evacuate it so they have an easier time dealing with Clay, only to be promptly ignored, first by Derek's underling in charge of the operation and then by Derek himself.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Adam certainly thought so of Eloise, the acts of vengeance he'd committed were more than just because of the [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe genuine kindness she showed him]]. Brief soliloquy's made in her name every now and then, during his running and gunning down her indirect killers, subsequently putting their phone line scamming out of business, really goes to show how much Adam loved her as a person.

* AintTooProudToBeg: Garnett is most guilty of this, breaking down into InelegantBlubbering when he gets [[{{FinGore}} four of five fingers on his right hand gashed off]] by Adam, after the idiot YesMan [[DoNotTauntCthulhu confronted him for torching his con job operation]] for what he'd taken from Eloise Parker. He again suffers a massive VillainousBreakdown of tearful whimpering, when he's strapped down with a bonding latch and driven along by Clay's truck into the east river.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Adam certainly thought so of Eloise, the acts of vengeance he'd committed were more than just because of the [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe genuine kindness she showed him]]. Brief soliloquy's made in her name every now and then, during his running and gunning down her indirect killers, subsequently putting their phone line scamming out of business, really goes to show how much Adam loved her as a person.

* VillainBall: If Derek hadn't insisted Garnet go after Clay, everything might have ended right there. Clay destroyed the call center and gave the scammers a second chance. Instead their attack clues Clay in to the fact it wasn't just the one group. And things go from there.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Crossed with PlayingTheVictimCard, this is how Garnett tricked miss Eloise out of her lifesavings and charity fund. Using {{crocodile tears}} backing the old "threat of losing his job" plight to overlay a misconceived money transferal screwup, thus placating what an unadulterated scumbag he was.

* DrivenToSuicide: Eloise Parker shoots herself in the head after losing two million dollars from a charity she helped run (as well as her savings) to the scammers.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Adam certainly thought so of Eloise, the acts of vengeance he'd committed were more than just because of the [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe genuine kindness she showed him]]. Brief soliloquy's made in her name every now and then, during his running and gunning down her indirect killers, subsequently putting their phone line scamming out of business, really goes to show how much Adam loved her as a person.

* TheConspiracy: A mix of CorporateConspiracy and GovernmentConspiracy. While his revenge on Eloise's scammers is swift and brutal, Clay recognizes the scammer's efforts as more than a mere phishing operation. [[spoiler:It soon emerges than it was arranged by Derek Danforth, who used a network of these call centres and targeting software from the CIA to con vulnerable people out of their earnings to finance his mother's presidential campaign and bribe her way to victory. Unusually, she's not in on it at all]].

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Adam certainly thought so of Eloise, the acts of vengeance he'd committed were more than just because of the [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe genuine kindness she showed him]]. Brief soliloquy's made in her name every now and then, during his running and gunning down her indirect killers, subsequently putting their phone line scamming out of business, really goes to show how much Adam loved her as a person.

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Clay notes that Eloise wasn't basically just the only person he ever knew who tries to take care of ''him''. She was a kind and aspiringly gentle soul whom only ever lived for the sake of helping others. Thus inspiring him to go to significant lengths to avenge her death. The brief soliloquy made in her name before gunning down her indirect killer really goes to show how much Adam loved her as a person.

* BerserkButon: Discussed by Clay. Being close with Eloise was [[ItsPersonal a big part of Clay's revenge]] and pursuit of justice for her, but Clay makes it clear that elder abuse is a MASSIVE one for him given how isolated and alone many elderly people are.

** Mickey Garnett, the head of the call center that gleefully scammed Eloise, [[spoiler:meets his end when Clay straps him to a truck and drives it off a bridge, taking Mickey with it.]]

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Derek gets this this quite a few times from most everyone in his life for what his scamming firm did. Even the [[PsychoForHire flamboyant merc, Lazarus]] called him out for being a douche on it. Not for internet con jobs mind you, but for grabbing the wrong kind of attention and severely underestimating the blowback from it.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Amazingly, Derek is one to Iosef Tarasov from ''Film/JohnWick''. They're both the [[SpoiledBrat spoiled]], [[SmugSnake arrogant]] son of a powerful figure who sets off the unstoppable protagonist's RoaringRampageOfRevenge by killing one of their loved ones (in Derek's case indirectly). But for as evil as Iosef was, he never ruined as many lives as Derek did, nor did he stoop so low as to [[spoiler:try and murder his own parental figure.]]

** By all appearances, Clay seemed to be satisfied with burning the offending call center to the ground, but Derek's insistence that Garnett personally track down and punish the person responsible alerted Clay to the fact that it was part of a larger operation and set him on course to follow the money. Clay clearly anticipated such retaliation, and would have dispatched the goons just as ruthlessly, but by going himself and calling Derek, Garnett gave away the fact that he had a boss.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: Crossed with PlayingTheVictimCard, this is how Garnett tricked miss Eloise out of her lifesavings and charity fund. Using crocodile tears backing the old "threat of losing his job" plight to overlay a misconceived money transferal screwup, thus placating what an unadulterated scumbag he was.

* AGodIAmNot: Of a kind, when confronted by Lazarus about his mortality, Adam just gives a flat "I know".

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Amazingly, Derek is one to Iosef Tarasov from ''Film/JohnWick''. They're both the [[SpoiledBrat spoiled]], [[SmugSnake arrogant]] son of a powerful figure who sets off the unstoppable protagonist's RoaringRampageOfRevenge by killing one of their loved ones (in Derek's case indirectly). But for as evil as Iosef was, he never ruined as many lives as Derek did, nor did he stoop so low as to [[spoiler:try and murder his own mother.]]

** Derek Danforth is responsible for [[spoiler:hacking CIA software to steal money from people nobody would care about to finance his mother's presidential campaign without her knowledge]]. In the end, basically nobody cares enough about Derek to save his life directly.

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Clay notes that Eloise wasn't basically just the only person he ever knew who tried to take care of ''him''. She was a kind and aspiringly gentle soul whom only ever lived for the sake of helping others. This inspires him to go to significant lengths to avenge her death. The brief soliloquy made in her name before gunning down her indirect killer really goes to show how much Adam loved her as a person.

* AGodIAmNot: Of a kind, when confronted by Lazarus about his mortality, Adam just gives a flat "I know".

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Ironically enough; [[spoiler:Derek's mother, Jessica, had no idea where and/or how her son garnered enough cash for her to run for president. To say she didn't take the revelation he was a cyber scammer well, [[ParentalIssues is an understatement]].]]
* MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal: Subverted HARD. [[spoiler:Jessica didn't even realize up until the end how her son financed her presidential campaign. After the nigh-unstoppable VigilanteMan comes blasting through the White House office door, in response to finding out her only child's misdeeds, she is visibly mortified.]]

* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Clay always refrains from using lethal force against innocents and law enforcement. [[spoiler: There is still some collateral property damage, however, given the incident where he destroys an elevator to cut some bad guys in half.]]

* PrinciplesZealot: What Adam Clay is at his core - a well meaning man whom originally just wanted a little peace in his life, but was immediately drawn back into an old world he'd left behind in order to set right a grave injustice that occurred in his cozy little home.

* PsychopathicManchild: Derek comes across as an overgrown rotten teenager. He believes he's untouchable thanks to his wealth and privilege, and looks down on those around him and has absolutely no empathy for anyone else [[spoiler: to the point that he sees nothing wrong with scamming dozens of innocent people out of their money. Bonus points for the fact that he ends up hiding behind his mother just because she's the President of the United States. He even uses her as a HumanShield when things go south for him, cap stoning just how evil he is in a DirtyCoward attempt to save his own worthless hide.]]

* SmugSnake: Most of the villains, particularly the management types, are extremely arrogant and tend to sneer at Clay, right up until [[OhCrap they realise who they're dealing with.]]

* TooCleverByHalf: Something which describes Derek from start to finish. He stole and reworked secret government encryption coding for the sake of ill gotten financial intake, all while smugly believing no one would ever find out about his long con, much less be able to do anything about it if discovered anyway. Needless to say, the little jerk gets a pretty rude awakening in the form of an indomitable ex-[[TuxedoAndMartini secret agent man]], who singlehandedly dismantles his entire operation before pursuing him to the [[spoiler:White House]] just to [[BoomHeadshot shoot him in his face]].

* AGodIAmNot: Of a kind, when confronted by Lazarus about his mortality, Adam just gives a flat "I know".

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Clay notes that Eloise wasn't basically just the only person he ever knew who tries to take care of ''him''. She was a kind and aspiringly gentle soul whom only ever lived for the sake of helping others. Thus inspiring him to go to significant lengths to avenge her death. The brief soliloquy made in her name before gunning down her indirect killer really goes to show how much Adam loved her as a person.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Ironically enough; Derek's mother, Jessica, had no idea where and/or how her son garnered enough cash for her to run for president. To say she didn't take the revelation he was a cyber scammer well, [[ParentalIssues is an understatement]].
* MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal: Subverted; HARD. Jessica didn't even realize up until the end how her son financed her presidential campaign. After the nigh-unstoppable VigilanteMan comes blasting through the Whitehouse office door, in response to finding out her only child's misdeeds, she is visibly mortified.

* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Clay always refrains from using lethal force against innocents and law enforcement. [[spoiler: there is still some collateral however, given the half the man he used to be above.]]

* PrinciplesZealot: What Adam Clay is at his core. A well meaning man whom originally just wanted a little peace in his life, but was immediately drawn back into an old world he'd left behind in order to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong in his cozy little home.

* PsychopathicManchild: Derek comes across as an overgrown rotten teenager. Thinking he's untouchable thanks to his wealth and privilege, looks down on those around him and has absolutely no empathy for anyone else [[spoiler: to the point that he sees nothing wrong with scamming dozens of innocent people out of their money. Bonus points for the fact that he ends up hiding behind his mother just because she's the President of the United States. Even using her as a HumanShield when things go south for him. Cap stoning just how evil he is in a ShootTheHostage attempt to save his own worthless hide.]]

* TooCleaverByHalf: Something which described Derek from start to finish, he stole and reworked secret government encryption coding for the sake of ill gotten financial intake. All while smugly believing no one would ever find out about his long con, much less be able to do anything about it if discovered anyway. Needless to say, the little jerk got a pretty rude awakening in the form of an indomitable ex-[[TuxedoAndMartini secret agent man]], who singlehandedly dismantled his entire operation before finding him at the Whitehouse just to [[BoomHeadshot shoot him in his face]].

* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Anisette, the Beekeeper that fights Clay, is an absolute loon. She shoots up most of the petrol station to get him, happily guns down civilians and responding police officers (in sharp contrast to Clay's non-lethal (to an extent) incapacitation of such men throughout the film) and, when he proves tougher than anticipated, shreds the rest of the petrol station ''with a minigun''.]]

* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Clay notes that Eloise is basically the only person he ever knew who tries to take care of ''him'', inspiring him to go to significant lengths to avenge her death.

* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Ironically enough; Derek's mother had no idea where and/or how her son, Derek Danforth, garnered enough money for her to run for president. To say she didn't take the revelation he was a cyber scammer well, [[ParentalIssues is an understatement]].
* MamaDidntRaiseNoCriminal: Subverted; HARD. Jessica didn't even realize up until the end how it was her son financed her presidential campaign. After the nigh-unstoppable VigilanteMan comes blasting through the Whitehouse front lawn, in response to finding out her only child's misdeeds, she is visibly mortified.

* PsychopathicManchild: Derek comes across as an overgrown spoiled teenager. He thinks he's untouchable thanks to his wealth and privilege, looks down on those around him and has absolutely no empathy for anyone else [[spoiler: to the point that he sees nothing wrong with scamming dozens of innocent people out of their money. Bonus points for the fact that he ends up hiding behind his mother just because she's the President of the United States.]]

* RetiredBadass: Adam Clay was once a member of the Beekeepers, a secret government organization that works outside of the law in order to enforce justice, and was considered to be the most dangerous and skilled member of his group. He went into retirement and was content to live a peaceful life as a beekeeper until forces conspired to bring him back out into the field.

** After his friend is driven to suicide after being scammed, Mr. Clay travels to the scammers' headquarters, attacks them, douses them in gasoline, and blows up the building. He then sets off to track the money all the way back to the person behind the whole scam, [[spoiler:the son of the newly-elected President of the United States]].

* AxCrazy: [[spoiler:Anisette, the Beekeeper that fights Clay, is an absolute loon. She shoots up most of the petrol station to get him, happily guns down civilians and responding police officers (in sharp contrast to Clay's non-lethal incapacitation of such men throughout the film) and, when he proves tougher than anticipated, shreds the rest of the petrol station ''with a minigun''.]]

* LaughablyEvil: Derek is a smug, loathsome SpoiledBrat, but he's so incompetent and sleazy it's hard not to be amused by him.

* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Clay always refrains from using lethal force against innocents and law enforcement.

* GoodIsNotNice:
** Clay may be firmly on the side of justice, sparing innocent lives and allowing the smaller criminals a chance to walk away, but that doesn’t mean he won’t break a few heads if people get in his way, and has no problem beating the crap out of law enforcement and even giving them survivable wounds if it comes to it.
** FBI agent Verona Parker is a self-confessed asshole but still firmly on the side of good, despite her CowboyCop tendencies.

* ReusableLighterToss: The titular Beekeeper tosse one in the trailer for the film.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: After his friend is driven to suicide after being scammed, Mr. Clay travels to the scammer's headquarters, attacks them, douses them in gasoline, and blows up the building. He then sets off to track the money all the way back to the person behind the whole scam, [[spoiler:the son of the newly-elected President of the United States]].

* EvilMatriarch: [[spoiler:Subverted. The film looks like it's building to this, looking like President Danforth is TheManBehindTheMan for her son Derek, but it turns out she's sincerely clueless about all the corruption and crime he's steeped in, including rigging the election for her]].

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Clay and Verona aren't [[GoodIsNotNice particularly nice people]], but the villains are (with the exception of Westwyld) one-dimensionally evil {{Smug Snake}}s who KickTheDog with impunity.

* HalfTheManHeUsedToBe: One of the mooks subject to Clar's ElevatorFailure tactic winds up sliced in half when he's caught between the open door and the falling elevator. His legs then fall out when it hits the ground floor.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: [[spoiler:Parker lets Clay go at the end, having decided that obeying the law is less important than justice he obtained for her mother and others like her, regardless of how violently it was achieved]].

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: Verona should not have been working the literal day after her mother's suicide, and should absolutely ''not'' have been touching a case involving the people who scammed said mother and triggered said suicide with a ten-foot pole.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Subverted. [[spoiler:Derek threatens to murder his own mother and holds her as a hostage so Clay won't kill him, and nearly goes through with it when it becomes clear Clay isn't going to stop.]]

* HateSink: The people managing the entire conspiracy are not remotely likable, being nothing more than a bunch of sleazy, overconfident shysters who seem to actively delight in draining innocent people dry of their money and are nothing more than [[DirtyCoward Dirty Cowards]] when finally faced with someone their security can't handle. It makes Clay utterly destroying them all the more cathartic.

* BeautyIsBad: Derek Danforth may have the handsome boyish looks of Josh Hutcherson that his mother [[spoiler: The President of the United States]] acknowledges, but he is a PsychopathicManchild who shows no remorse for the countless lives he ruined for his own personal gain and desperately tries to run away from the consequences of his actions. [[spoiler:Even his own mother is not safe from him whom he tries to use as a body shield to stop Clay from coming after him only to try and kill her when it is clear he won't relent.]]

* CombatPragmatism: [[spoiler:Clay kicking off Lazarus' prosthetic leg, depriving Lazarus of the leverage he needs to keep up with Clay.]]

* TheDeterminator: Clay is willing to go to any lengths to punish the people responsible for Eloise's suicide. [[spoiler:Up to and including going after the President of the United States of America, though he ultimately spares her]].

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: [[spoiler:The Beekeepers as an organisation agree to send an operative after Clay, but after that operative is killed, they make it clear that they will be adopting a neutral stance on Clay's efforts.]]

* NonActionBigBad: Derek's an arrogant, spoiled, yuppie SmugSnake who's absolutely no physical threat to Clay - so skilled and determined he's bordering on InvincibleHero. The film's later drama comes more from if he'll actually kill [[spoiler:President]] Danforth for producing a "defective offspring", as Parker puts it.

* SirNotAppearingInThisTrailer: Creator/JemmaRedgrave isn't in any of the promotional material, despite playing a major role in the second half of the film. Namely, the President of the United States.

!!''The Beekeeper'' includes examples of the following:

* BeautyIsBad: Derek Danforth may have the handsome boyish looks of Josh Hutcherson that his mother [[spoiler: The President of the United States]] acknowledges, but he is a PsychopathicManchild who shows no remorse for the countless lives he ruined for his own personal gain and desperately tries to run away from the consequences of his actions. [[Spoiler: Even his own mother is not safe from him whom he tries to use as a body shield to stop Clay from coming after him only to try and kill her when it is clear he won't relent.]]

* RetiredBadass: Adam Clay was once a member of the Beekeepers, a secret government organization that works outside of the law in order to enforce justice, and was considered to be the most dangerous and skilled member of his group. He went into retirement and was content to live a peaceful life as a beekeeper until forces conspired to bring him back out into the field.

* SpiritualSuccessor: This movie has many elements from John Wick that it has been compared to.
** The main character is a normal man living a peaceful life but is actually a trained assassin who was considered the deadliest of his kind by those he once worked for but has since went into retirement.
** However, his peace was disturbed by a SpoiledBrat whose callous actions led to the death of someone he cared greatly about (In this case, it is his neighbor instead of his dog that died), forcing him to deal personally with those who had no idea who they were messing with.
** The SpoiledBrat thought he was untouchable due to his connections only for his father figure to spell out what an absolutely horrible mistake he made in provoking the wrong person. Even though he does not like what he did, the father figure does whatever he can to protect his ward by hiring the best assassins and mercenaries available to put a stop to the man.
** The SpoiledBrat decides to run away to the one place he thought the man would not dare to attack him which would be his mother the President of the United States. This is also what Santino D'Antonio also tried to do by hiding in the Continental when his attempts to kill John Wick has failed. Both men believe their pursuer would not dare to kill them due to the repercussions of what would happen if he did, only for both men to not care and kill them anyway.
** Someone had the opportunity to kill them for their actions but chose to let them get away out of respect for them. Verona Parker was going to shoot Adam Clay after he killed the president's son but she chose not to. Winston Scott gave John Wick an hour's headstart to get away after he broke the rules of the Continental.